The Rockies enter the 2025 season with a familiar face: GermánMárquez,,,,, Kyle Freeland,,,,, Ryan Feltner,,,,, Austin Gomberand Antonio Senzatela. All five pitchers rotated multiple times on Colorado’s opening day. However, general manager Bill Schmidt did not rule out the possibility that one of the team’s young pitching prospects could replace an established division (Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post). So, GM says his team is willing to move veterans’ entry to the bullpen to accommodate the idea of rotating new faces. Manager Bud Black told Saunders that he was also open to some young pitchers as long as they were ready.
Saunders lists three prospects that are most likely to get rid of the opening day lineup are Chase doll,,,,, Carson Palm Questand Sean Sullivan. Dollander, 23, is the top 100 prospect in the consensus, widely regarded as the best pitching prospect in the Rocky Mountains system. He looks like a future frontline starter and a perennial Cy Young contender. But it’s less than two years since Colorado drafted him, and he has only one year of professional experience. So it’s very likely that the Rockies want their star prospects to get more representation among senior minors, and they then expose him to major league games – at Coors Field. By then, Schmidt made it clear that the Rockies had no interest in catching up with the show. They wouldn’t consider calling him to kick out of the bullpen. He won’t be in Colorado until he’s ready to play a role in the rotation.
However, Player Development Director Chris Forbes suggests that 24-year-old Palmquist can see his MLB debut (every Saunders). The team still envisions him as a long-term starter, and he can still impress him to play a starting role this spring, but he can also see time as multiple innings in the “pen.” The young lefty doesn’t say the prospect as well as the dolls – he looks more like a back-end starter than an ace – but he may be closer to the majors. The Rockies took him with the 88th pick in 2022 and he quickly rose to their minor league system. He started 46 times in four levels, including three levels of Triple-A. In the 27 starts between Double-A and Triple-A last year, he shot an impressive strikeout rate with a 3.98 ERA and 4.43 FIP, despite his walking rate of 12.1%.
Sullivan, 22, is Colorado’s second-round draft pick in 2023. Most evaluators are skeptical of his long-term prospects as a major league starter. Baseball America describes him as a “deep starter”, while Fangraphs thinks he works in the middle relief. However, the baseball prospectus team placed him on the Rockies’ top ten prospects list, suggesting he could be the fourth starter to be “efficient”. If any possibility of his performance in 2024 is cancelled, it is certainly possible. Between more than 21 high-speed A and Double-A, Sullivan threw 115 1/3 innings with 2.11 ERA and 2.83 FIP. The most impressive thing is his precise control. He only walked 3.4% of the batsmen. After such a year, it’s not hard to understand why the Rockies will extend its appearance this spring.
As for which Colorado veteran starter may move to the bullpen, Sezatra is probably the most likely. The 30-year-old who is often injured has almost missed the past two seasons, recovering from ACL reconstruction and Tommy John’s surgery. His last productive season was in 2021, and even then, he didn’t have enough pitches to win the Times title. After so much time, it’s no surprise to see him struggling in the camp, in which all participants can put him back into the MLB role through the bullpen. Considering that he has also missed most of the seasons due to injury in the past two seasons, Marquez is another name to watch this spring. Over the past six years, he has been durable and reliable for Colorado, so his belt may be longer than his fellow Venezuelans right-handed. In other words, it is extremely unlikely that the Rockies will move Márquez to the cowshed. However, if he needs to return to the injured list, the position in the rotation will be opened.
